Saturday may be St. Patrick’s Day, but for me the important milestone that day is my grand daughter Nina’s 5th birthday.

She always asks me to bake a birthday cake for her and when she came to my house a few weeks ago we discussed what she would like and she told me “a rainbow cake with vanilla.”

Which is what we made for practice, just to see if that’s what she really wanted. We were able to have all these good colors thanks to several squirts of food coloring, which I added to small bowls of yellow cake batter and let Nina mix.

Here she is frosting her practice cake with a cream-cheese frosting.

Her real birthday cake will have the same frosting plus an Ariel, Little Mermaid design on the top. And a Little Mermaid Candle.

Of course.

Cream Cheese Frosting for Yellow Cake

Cream Cheese Frosting:

3/4 cup butter at room temperature

12 ounces cream cheese at room temperature

1-1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar

1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Beat the butter, cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract, enough to make the frosting easy to spread. Enough for one 9-inch layer cake